Mike Lister

Tax returns are computerised, they are completed online. Just to put things into perspective, it wasn't that long ago that Thailand was an Emerging Market country, today it is classified as Developing. It doesn't have all the things you might be used to from back home but they have come a long way in two decades.

I did use the CoR, the requirement to show my passport in person was in addition. I get my CoR's via my agent who handles all aspects of my dealings with Immi for me, they have copies of all the documents used for my visa extentions..

Not every Amphur will issue yellow books, even though they are required by law to track the foreigners who live there.

I don't have a yellow book because my Amphur wont issue one to farangs but I do have a copy of my tax return which has been accepted by banks as proof of ID and address.

I recently sold my old vehicle and bought a brand new one, I needed residence certificates for both transactions, PLUS, DLT insisted I visit their offices in person and produce my passport for both transactions, copies would not be accepted. My old vehicle went to a tent company that the dealership arranged so the dealer was just a middle man in the transaction. The tent guy was extremely nervous that he was buying from a farang, because of all the hoops and hurdles DLT came up with.Ot all worked out in the end and everyone was happy but the nervousness by all parties was palatable. This was in Chiang Mai, this was third vehicle purchase in 20 years.

No I don't and no I am not. And it's not a propaganda piece, it's merely a simple explanation of how sampling is used to develop statistics by marketing companies et al. Most professional survey operate on the same basis, as long as at least 1,100 people are surveyed, the results will be statistically representative of the population as a whole.

Indeed. TAT uses sampling to determine tourism statistics. TAT uses a network of tourist related businesses in various locations, all of whom are required to report tourist expenses, in the same manner and on the same date, every month. This includes nationality, number of nights, average bill, non-room costs, etc etc as reported by hotels, restaurants, tour companies, airlines etc etc. This the same system of calculation that many Western countries employee, as long as the sample is over a certain size, statistically the numbers are reliable. Certain assumptions are built into the calculations, for example, local cash expense that can't reliably be gathered any other way, is assumed and then factored as a percentage of total expense. At last count, TAT had over 2,600 such business inputs in Bangkok.

You don't understand averaging, do you!

10 posts all saying that posters are deluded idiots for wanting to better understand the way the Thai tax system is constructed and operated. Makes me wonder why you don't, apart from not have the ability that is.

NO, I do not know for certain that banks are reporting inbound remittances to the RD, but I do know for certain that other forms of income such as interest income (there's that word again) are because the RD knows these amounts when I go to do my tax return. Reporting that additional information would be a simple task. But another poster quoted lamar's (or similar) earlier and wrote that the threshold criteria for banks to report inbound remittances is in the order of 2 mill Baht per year or hundreds of transactions, per customer. On that basis, no they are not being reported yet but to my mind it's on a matter of time. The banks labelling of those transactions is slightly suspicious, they could easily be savings transfers set up to meet the visa criteria.

I have no control over how those remittances are labelled and I cannot change them, both of my banks, Bangkok and UOB, label them as income. To be clear, these are direct deposits from the UK State Pension and the US SSc. I posted that statement in response to K2938' post and the quote from tilleke gibbons who said: Generally, PIT collection depends on taxpayersʼ faithful and full declaration of income in their PIT returns filed by the end of March each year." (https://www.tilleke.com/insights/thailand-new-order-closes-tax-loophole-for-offshore-sourced-income/) The whole point here is that PIT collection does NOT "depend on taxpayers faithful and full declaration", the banks have already decided that those direct deposits are income by default and they are reporting them to the RD as such, I don't have to do anything! If they are not income, I will have to complete a tax return to confirm this.

Thank you for the link. I don't know if 2022 was or was not an anomaly in respect of ratio's because the date in the link doesn't include that year. It was however an anomaly in respect of the ratio of Malay tourists to other nationalities which fell off a cliff that year and the year before. But I don't think that's important to confirm consistent ratios or otherwise, I accept based on the NSO link that land arrivals are included in the NSO report so logically they are included in the TAT statistics also.

2022 was tourism recovery after covid, Malaysia led that charge, 2022 was a tourism anomaly. What few flights there were were expensive plus nobody wanted to sit on a plane full of covid. So yes, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were significant numbers of tourists who arrived by road in that year but in over twenty years I've never seen land border crossings set out in the official figures. If you have and if you know of a link to them, anywhere, I'd love to see it. Because the next step is that a whole bunch of posters will start screaming that any land border crossing statistics include day traders not tourists, which I believe is why TAT doesn't count them.

Presumably, the new rules do not apply to those of us who are not UK resident for tax purposes but are UK landlords and who use a UK accountant to file our self assessment returns?

Perhaps the title of this thread helps put the planned cash giveaway into context, 560 billion is around 6 months of the international tourism income, that's what government is planning to give away.

I would point out that all my overseas remittances into my Thai bank accounts is now clearly labelled as "Income" whereas previously it was labelled in other ways. It also certain that Thai banks report all my interest and income to the RD, they know these numbers before I do.

Visa fees are a trivial source of tourist income.

That sounds about right. The average length of stay is around 9 days but varies by nationality, longer haul tourists stay longer than regional tourists. Average spend per person is around 5,500 per day but once again, varies widely based on nationality.

I suspect you're correct, giving every citizen in Thailand, 560 billion each probably would break the bank!

Dear God, is there no end to this nonsense!

H "may" have to, we don't know. https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/who-must-send-a-tax-return#:~:text=who has died-,Who must send a tax return,partner in a business partnership

Forgot....also, the majority of Malays visiting Thailand fly into Had Yai or Bangkok, Malay tourists don't drive half way across Malaysia just to cross the land border, then drive half way across Thailand to get to Bangkok!

I have never suggested or thought that UK STate pension is a government pension.

Nonsense! Where do you think the numbers come from in the first place, where does said Ministry get them from? Hint......things that fly via airports, Immigration at land border crossings certainly don't gather them.

Nonsense, there are many such taxes in place, just not described the way you did.